In the thirteen years I have owned my , I have read about how traditional sailors have made disparaging comments about Mac’s. My reality is that I have received absolutly no negative comments at all. People have stopped me to admire Nice Aft. I have even had a yacht club sailor approach me to say “Captain, you have a nice boat there.”

I am sorry to read of those who make disparaging comments about Mac’s, but I am happy to never have been on the receiving end of those remarks.

I love it, they can say whatever they like, I know that they are just repeating the mindless dribble they read somewhere on the net that was put about by people that had never set foot on a Mac. I often ask if they have ever sailed a Mac or even been on one, the answer is inevitably "NO", one bloke sprouted off how he had sailed one and it was "horrible and wouldn't tack", to which my reply was "Like any boat it has its challenges, but a good sailor adapts their style to suit the boat" that put a quick end to that conversation.

In fact I think it draws all us Mac owners closer together in a community, sort of gives us something in common.

Much like many, when I invite people aboard (a rare thing as I dont like people enough to let them on my boat) they are all amazed at just how much space there is and just how nice it is compared to their highly compromised dog boxes.

I have not had any "antifa" boaters approach me screaming and yelling with the M boat - I think the mindless hatred of the X boat has sort of diminished over the years since the M boat was introduced - All the shouts of "baby killer!" have diminished greatly since then and now most people seem to associate the name MacGregor with "Fast Sailboat". I guess the older stories of the company endures over the newer rumors. That Mac 65 still seems to have the enduring legacy that made it more valuable to the company marketing than the profits it made on the 65 and a lot of old trailer sailors still associate the name MacGregor with "Venture" or 'fast' - the reputation of the D boat is still alive... . people see my boat and say "fast" and I have to remind them, "no, this is not the D boat, this is the M boat - it's a bus, not a bullet".

It's the old group of guys that used to sail the Jensen flush decks and the Colombia's and the Cals from the 80's that still just loath the X boat - if you were in a bar with those guys and told them you had an X or M boat they would pick up their drink and move somewhere else. Those idiots worked so hard and spent so much money keeping those six ton waterlogged tubs afloat so their brains were too far gone to ever accept there was an easier way to sail a boat. The MAC was just TOO easy by their standards - I just had to let them go.

At least the public perception has changed - the general public seems to really like the M boat - whenever I am at the ramp I always get a few reactions from folks like as if I'm driving the batmobile.

In all of the years I’ve had my , I have once had a reaction that was neither pro nor con about a Mac.

In 2005, on the first day I launched Nice Aft at a marina, at the end of the day I did have one old salt make a comment when I pulled her out of the water. He saw all of the ballast water pouring out, and said to me, “Son, that boat is too new for that much water to be coming out!”

I heard the wife of a customer that bought a 26X from me say to her husband "what are we going to say to our friends at the yacht club?". I said "tell them that you got a better boat".
Bill at BOATS 4 SAIL

Bill at BOATS 4 SAIL wrote:I heard the wife of a customer that bought a 26X from me say to her husband "what are we going to say to our friends at the yacht club?". I said "tell them that you got a better boat".
Bill at BOATS 4 SAIL

Hello,
In the early years I would swoop by the keel boats at the end of the day with my aluminum jenny. Occasionally sailors would come by and say they had never seen a sailboat go so fast. Later tied up at a dock I got a comment from the owner of a 76' sloop who was talking about his yacht. "She motors at 16 knots" he said and without skipping a beat he looked at us on our X and said "I know you can motor faster than that."

Overall we have had nothing but positive comments at the ramp. A couple old salts gave us an "A" for our smooth quick recovery mainly because we didn't yell at each other during the process.

Don T wrote:Overall we have had nothing but positive comments at the ramp. A couple old salts gave us an "A" for our smooth quick recovery mainly because we didn't yell at each other during the process.

We used to be very self conscious when docking and launching / retrieving at the club, all the keel boater (Real sailors in their minds) never come down to take a line even though they can see a lady on the bow and at times my 13 year old daughter on the stern line, we know fellow trailer boat sailors would be on the dock in a flash, but "Real Sailors" tend to just stand and watch at our club.

Overall this as actually helped and we get docking as smooth as silk without any yelling or tantrums and if and when it goes slightly wrong I use it as a lesson to show them what went wrong, why and how to stop it happening again (of course its never me, my approach is always perfect )

It with great pleasure we now dock quietly and in full control (well most of the time), we have a briefing when we are about 100 yards out to make sure everybody is ready and we all know the plan A and plan B in case things go awry, we can only do it 100 yards out because we cant see the positions of other boats on the jetty before then due to a 90 degree turn in the channel, at that point we are only doing 3 knots so it takes a while to cover those yards and access as we get closer.

Im very proud of my crew, they have learnt a lot in the last few months, and now we put those "Real Sailors" to shame

NiceAft wrote:In all of the years I’ve had my , I have once had a reaction that was neither pro nor con about a Mac.

In 2005, on the first day I launched Nice Aft at a marina, at the end of the day I did have one old salt make a comment when I pulled her out of the water. He saw all of the ballast water pouring out, and said to me, “Son, that boat is too new for that much water to be coming out!”

NiceAft wrote:In all of the years I’ve had my , I have once had a reaction that was neither pro nor con about a Mac.

In 2005, on the first day I launched Nice Aft at a marina, at the end of the day I did have one old salt make a comment when I pulled her out of the water. He saw all of the ballast water pouring out, and said to me, “Son, that boat is too new for that much water to be coming out!”

Ray

We told the fisho at the ramp we had forgotten to put the bungs in, he was more than a bit bemused as 550L of water poured out the back, always good for a laugh

my only Mac complaint is how long it take to rig the boat. 20-30min. for the boat. 20-30 min. to answer all the questions and offer thank you, compliment appreciated, to the gawkers. And no I don't tow it home with the mast up. And no I didn't just empty the head in the middle of the ramp.